2010 Census.....US Government fails again

[XJEEPER]

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/06...ng-census.html


Here's a great idea.....since they suck at every other program that they attempt to run efficiently, let's hand over our Healthcare to them too.

[RichP]

I've been thinking about a press that would make wood stove pellets out of junk mail, old phone books and newspapers. After I spent 5 hours shredding old paper work thats been around for 5 years and filled up a dozen lawn sized garbage bags I thought it would be nice if I could do this.

[bigalpha]

Originally Posted by RichP

I've been thinking about a press that would make wood stove pellets out of junk mail, old phone books and newspapers. After I spent 5 hours shredding old paper work thats been around for 5 years and filled up a dozen lawn sized garbage bags I thought it would be nice if I could do this.

Profitable, too.

[ECKSJAY]

Originally Posted by RichP

I've been thinking about a press that would make wood stove pellets out of junk mail, old phone books and newspapers. After I spent 5 hours shredding old paper work thats been around for 5 years and filled up a dozen lawn sized garbage bags I thought it would be nice if I could do this.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=make+your+own+pellets&l=1

[RichP]

Why do I get the feeling that's a variant of a Nigerian scam..

[tbburg]

Speaking of the Census,...

How many of us got the reminder in the mail to fill out the census form that they haven't sent out yet? Was that necessary? Shouldn't they at least wait until half the country ignores the mailer, then send out a bunch of acorn reps-oops census workers to be nosy and force-oops encourage compliance?

[XJEEPER]

Commerce Department inspector general Todd Zinser makes clear the government is at risk of wasting millions of additional dollars without tighter spending controls by the Census Bureau on its 1 million temporary workers.

"The costs were substantial," he wrote, imploring the agency to improve cost estimates so the national head count does not exceed its $15 billion price tag.

Recent audit findings:

--More than 10,000 census employees were paid more than $300 apiece to attend training for the massive address-canvassing effort, but they quit or were let go before they could perform any work. Cost: $3 million.

--Another 5,000 employees collected $300 for the same training but worked a single day or less. Cost $1.5 million.

--Twenty-three temporary census employees were paid for car mileage at 55 cents a mile, even though the number of miles they reported driving per hour exceeded the number of hours they actually worked.

--Another 581 employees who spent the majority of their time driving instead of conducting field work also received full mileage reimbursements, which investigators called questionable.

--Other temporary employees claimed nearly 3.9 million miles driven at the mileage reimbursement rate of 58.5 cents per mile, even though the federal rate had been reduced to 55 cents as of January 2009. The result: excess payments of roughly $136,000.

Census regional offices that had mileage costs exceeding their planned budgets included Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City and Seattle.

The Super Bowl advertising -- which included a 30-second spot in the third quarter, two 30-second pregame spots and on-air mentions -- was panned by media critics as weak and ineffective, and it was criticized as wasteful by Republicans including

[kastein]

Got my reminder to fill out the future survey in the mail yesterday...

Honestly, why are we worrying about 15 billion on the census when we just blew through a trillion or so we didn't have on attempting to help the economy recover? I agree that it's a flagrant waste of taxpayer money but there are much bigger problems which should be attacked first.

[Jes]

Originally Posted by tbburg

Speaking of the Census,...

How many of us got the reminder in the mail to fill out the census form that they haven't sent out yet?

Oh, that's what it was that ended up in my recycling bin.

[XJEEPER]

Originally Posted by Jes

Oh, that's what it was that ended up in my recycling bin.

Broke and out of a job......that was free TP you just tossed.

[XJEEPER]

Originally Posted by kastein

I agree that it's a flagrant waste of taxpayer money but there are much bigger problems which should be attacked first.

This logic is what has gotten us in this financial situation.....there will always be a bigger, more expensive program that will make a few billion dollars appear insignificant. It's all significant.

[Darky]

When trying to save money, you don't leave the lights on just because there's a 1000 watt spotlight on the roof. You turn off both.

[5-90]

The census would cost less if they quit with this "long form" nonsense - the sole and only purpose of the US Census is a "decennial enumeration of the Nation's population." Period. It has sod-all to do with demographics.

The Postal People? Keep the "carrier-route presort" rates, but put the rates for bulk mail on par with First Class mail - that should solve their budget problems. Why should mail I really don't want, didn't order, and never look at get a discounted rate? I do my part - except where specifically requested, all of my shipping (domestic and international) goes through the Postal People. For a number of reasons, I find them better to deal with than United Package Smashers or other private contract carriers.

And a solution that could have happened for all of these temps at $300 a crack? "If you don't do the work to recover our investment, you're liable to return it. Whether we get it paid back by you directly, take it from your tax return, or garnish your wages doesn't matter - you signed the authorisation for us to do so when you signed up." Similar approaches could have been used for the excess mileage and such - or, say, you are allowed X miles per day - anything beyond that won't be compensated.

You get the idea. A little forethought can save a lot of trouble on the backside...

[ReverendOD]

Yeah I found that hilarious that they wasted money to send me a letter letting me know i would be getting the census... wasteful..

[87manche]

I had to fill out the "extended' survey a few months ago.

the one where they ask you all sorts of questions about when you leave for work, and how may bedrooms are in your house, and how much money you make. Oh, and what race you are, but I thought we didn't make decisions based on color?

anyway, they just sent me another letter stating that my answers were not satisfactory. Apparently claiming "martian" under race does not fly. I'm going to claim I'm a scientologist so I can keep that answer.